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Wednesday, 3 February 2016

This Week In 1991: February 3, 1991

Some artists are great at reinventing themselves - able to tell when it's a good idea to change musical direction or make over their image. Others get pigeonholed as one thing and are never able to move on, no matter how much they try.

New Kids changed their sound and their name, but no one was buying it

This week in 1991, two acts that had enjoyed top 10 success suddenly found themselves just scraping in to the top 40 with singles that were nothing like their big hits. Bad moves or just bad songs?

ARIA Top 50 Singles Chart - week ending February 3, 1991

Moving up to number 1 this week in 1991, "I Touch Myself" gave Divinyls their first - and only - Australian chart-topper, knocking off "Ice Ice Baby" in the process.

Off The ChartNumber 84 "More" by The Sisters Of MercyPeak: number 74Better late than never - the British goth rock band finally reached the ARIA top 100 with this epic lead single from third and final album Vision Thing.

Breaker"Lock It" by Falling JoysPeak: number 55Back in the days when Rage used to play the ARIA top 60, I remember fast-forwarding through this track the handful of weeks it charted between numbers 60 and 51. I wasn't adverse to the odd bit of Australian indie rock from this era - like The Hummingbirds or The Clouds - but I found the verses of "Lock It" by Canberra band Falling Joys a bit dull and I don't think I ever gave the song a chance to get to the rousing chorus. If "Lock It" was released today, I'd probably quite like it, so I might need to give this some retrospective attention.

New EntriesNumber 50 "I Saw Red" by WarrantPeak: number 36Oh, c'mon Warrant. You can't release a single like "Cherry Pie" and then expect us to take you seriously after that. OK, the shift back to a "Heaven"-style song might've worked in America, where they lapped up this kind of hair metal power ballad and sent "I Saw Red" to number 10. But, in Australia, Warrant would never be anything but the band behind the lyric "she wanted me to feed her/so I mixed up the batter/and she licked the beater", among other gems. "I Saw Red" was a very different tale of Jani Lane-style love and romance - the Warrant singer wrote the track about being confronted with the sight of his girlfriend and his best friend in bed together.

Number 43 "Games" by New Kids On The BlockPeak: number 33Oh, c'mon New Kids On The Block. You can't release singles like "Step By Step" and "Tonight" one minute, then expect us to buy you as purveyors of Bell Biv Devoe-lite hip-hop the next. In all fairness, NKTOB, as they now styled their name, had to do something drastic. Fans were quickly tiring of their sickly sweet tunes. Recent allegations of miming - however unfounded they were - didn't help their cause, either. So it was out with the bubblegum pop, and in with the hip-hop and house beats, and an angry rap "to all those non-believers out there" from co-writer Donnie Wahlberg.A more traditional New Kids-sounding version of "Games" had originally appeared on the Step By Step album, but the boy band recruited white hot remixers Robert Clivillés & David Cole (of C&C Music Factory fame) to turn the "Hangin' Tough"-style track into something much more credible. Musically, this was the most exciting thing the boys had ever released, but all the rebranding and posturing in the world couldn't disguise the fact that this single and the whole No More Games remix album project smacked of desperation rather than a genuine musical metamorphosis.

Number 35 "Wiggle It" by 2 In A RoomPeak: number 3Next up, a track that also fused hip-hop and dance, but didn't feel at all forced. A feel-good anthem with a cautionary warning about drink-driving worked in, "Wiggle It" was the perfect end-of-summer tune and its beach party music video was quickly on high rotation. Proof that America wasn't entirely being left behind while Europe charged ahead in the dance music stakes, the track was the only big hit by duo 2 In A Room, which was comprised of producer Roger "Rog Nice" Pauletta and rapper Rafael "Dose" Vargas. I actually wasn't a massive fan of "Wiggle It", but I could see why a lot of people were.

Listen to this week's new entries on my Spotify playlist of all the top 50 hits from 1991:

Next week: it takes two... of my most hated singers at the time teaming up for a dreadful cover version. Plus, dud singles by two other artists I normally liked. Thank goodness for two of the songs that didn't make the top 50.

4 comments:

'I Saw Red' is actually quite a decent song, but I guess they were never going to be taken seriously after 'Cherry Pie'. Rage curiously aired the (completely different) video for the acoustic version when it was in the chart.

'Games' was a strange move for NKOTB; trying to come across as 'hard', yet Jordan's falsetto was higher than ever in the verses. Having 'Kids' in the group name was a mistake waiting to catch up with them. I hadn't heard the original 'Games' before.

'Wiggle It' almost sounds like the male version of Ya Kid K. They had a couple of later flop singles that I liked more, but this wasn't too bad.

I enjoy The Sisters Of Mercy a lot but More has really done nothing for me over the years but i'm glad they at least visited our charts finally!

Lock It is a very tired and boring attempt at being clever, like most of their material.

I also agree on Warrant, there was no way the buying public was going to fall for that and a majority of the time since it's been relatively the same with that kind of set up. EVERY rock band goes through this stage, strange ain't it!I Saw Red isn't the worst thing but it's much to be desired and even though it sounds nothing like a famous Split Enz song as it lacks it's atmosphere.

I know i've said in the past that NKOTB sounds dated... Well imo i've always liked Games and tbh is probly my favorite.

I also understand why Wiggle It was so popular but i'd like to think if it were released a couple of years later (say '94) or now it'd hopefully bomb.It's not horrible, it's just corny and icky.

I must be on the outer in regard to 'Lock It'. I was introduced to this song around the same time that I really got into listening to Triple J. This song and their album is fantastic and I regularly listen to it even today. It's a pity that some of their later releases didn't do better. Their song Amen released in 1994 is fantastic.

I liked the New Kids on the Block 'Games' as well as it was so different to their other releases. I do remember listening to their remix album at the time and was disappointed by it.

I loved all the American top 40 fare, and found 'I Saw Red' a lot more palatable than 'Cherry Pie'. 'Heaven' remains their best song for me. Yes, hair metal power ballads are cheesy, but they are as much a part of mu eighties & nineties experience as anything else.

I actually love 'More', it made me take notice of Sisters Of Mercy for the first time, though in retrospect I liked 'This Corrosion' too. I love Maggie Reilly's backing vocals on 'More'.

Not a fan of 'Wiggle it', it veers too much towards novelty for me, it just annoyed me a bit."Games' is a weak single from New Kids.. I mean NKOTB. Oh, who were they trying to kid?